I was watching a documentary last night, about exposure to Neuro-toxins.It was on DW (German) TV.A few people from Germany had suffered nasty effects of un-packing goods sent from among the suppliers, India and larger Asia.Mainly what this had caused was severe head-aches and damage to the Central-Nervous system of those concerned, culminating in severe shaking, not unlike the most advanced stages of Parkinsons or Alzhiemers Disease.However the documentary went on to show crop farmers of Cotton, using nasty chemicals with no protection, that we would not got out on a field like that without.One instance, a worker using a "power-sprayer" to spray a crop of cotton with DDT, to rid the crop of pests, with not one bit of PPE on.One guys Spray pack had run out, so another guy, refills his pack, with DDT diluted with water, the pack is over-filled, so it runs all over him. The same thing is prevalent in the factories, a lot of workers complaining of constant itchy-ness with the dying processes, the waste dye/water just runs into the drains and is drank by the general public, through their water supply.I don't want to start a political argument about the poorer countries here, but, you could be wearing some of that clothing.It's only washed so well in it's country of origin.Could some of the staff in the Warehouses near where you are be exposed to the same sort of thing?.

"DDT may be short-term harmless to us Humans. But we share this flourishing green planet with a lot of other lovely creatures*, some of which we eat. The long persistence of DDT, and its genetic effects on ALL birds and other fauna were its insidious side effects, and given enough it time would harm us too IMO. I think we can do better for our earth than spray broad-spectrum bug killers. We don't use insecticides in the house, instead I've got an Electric Bug Swatter, (5000v) which is brilliant! Just swat the little buggers with this baby and they expode with a satisfying ZAP! Very sporting types only kill them on the wing! Get resistance to this you little perishers! Ha Ha!

PS * Except Wasps! Ugg! I don't like them. As far as I'm concerned 'Revlon' can do as many cosmetics experiments as they like on wasps! "

Another thing Greg,Is the fact that DDT stays in the soil for so long.we stopped using DDT here in NZ in 1973, but residues are still measurable here.Scary thing is that cows eat the grass on the ground that used to have DDT sprayed liberally on it, there would be a chance that that could show up in thier milk.Another aspect of the pro-Dairy farming thing here is, the fact that tonnes of water is being poured on to the land to make it more productive.This could be washing all sorts of latent chemicals (not just DDT) into our rivers and streams.We have had cases of fish being found floating belly up.Good clean Green image eh?.

The biggest problem with DDT was it was used too liberally, we sprayed it everywhere with no thought about how much was used. Like any chemical, it should only be used in the minimal amount necessary to complete the job. The newer chemicals may degrade faster but they still degrade to "something" and we are not sure what the long term effects of that degraded compound is. When it does degrade to something that won't kill bugs we spray on more. That may be great job security for chemical manufacturers but I am not sure if it is that great to the environment.

The unintended victims of DDT were mainly predators at the top of food chains, ( eagles, hawks, falcons) because the first ingesters, ( mice, sparrows, voles etc.) of afflicted insects concentrated the poisons in their livers,- predators then got a double concentrated dose off their prey. Now, the same effect has been seen in farmed fish, like salmon. The tiny amounts of dioxins present in fish wastes ( livers, skin, heads, guts) are concentrated in the processing of pellets, so the farmed salmon got 1000 times the wild fishes normal levels. Then we concentate it again! I believe the FDA (?)issued a warning about the amounts of farmed salmon it was safe to eat? 'x' portions a week?Alan

The real question is whether the newer products are any safer than DDT. It seems a few years after every one of the replacements is introduced they find new, unintended consequences that require it being banned.(Chloradane, Dursban, Diazinon etc)

Greg,I couldn't agree more with you.Farm Chemicals here when stored all together make a nasty cocktail in the middle of a field of hay on fire.Farmers here have been told to get rid of the unused chemicals.And they don't."Sigh".Idiots.

It suprises me that there are so many chemicals these days that can harm both humans and animal life, that people aren't a lot more careful with how they are applied and thier effect on the general environment.